Wx interface

The RefactorErl? has a Wx based user interface which is a standard desktop application. It provides a convenient way to access the functionalities of the tool and offers even more opportunities to ease code grokking. Its main features are the following:

• Database management
• Semantic queries and skeletons
• Dependency graphs
• Duplicated code analisys
• Code investigations

Installation

To use the Wx Interface, the Wx application needs to be installed on the computer. Wx is part of Erlang/OTP. To be able to drawn dependency graphs the GraphViz? software is needed, the newest version of which can be downloaded from the following location: ​http://www.graphviz.org

Starting up

We can start the interface either with the referl script using the -wx option, or from a running RefactorErl shell. When using RefactorErl? shell it is possible to pass a user name to the interface. This user name will be used when saving queries, skeletons, investigations. This way it is possible to store and grokking data made by different users.

Startup examples:

bin/referl -wx

ri:start_wx("myUserNameAsAstring").

...or without a user name (the default user name - the node name - will be used) :

ri:start_wx().

Shutting down

You can shut down the Wx Interface using the X button (usually at the upper-right corner of the window).

The Wx Interface and its main parts

The Wx interface is a standard desktop application. It contains of five tabs and a status bar where RefactorErl? status information is shown (e. g. the status of file adding). The mentioned tabs are the following:

• File browser File browser?
• Queries Dependency examinations
• Dependency graph Dependency graph?
• Duplicated code Duplicated code
• Investigations Investigations

There are some important information messages which are shown to the user as dialog windows. (e. g. Duplicated code analisys finished)